An Empirical Procedure for

Fatigue Damage Estimation in

C. Shi1
School of Petroleum Engineering,
China University of Petroleum (East China),
Qingdao, Shangdong 266580, China
L. Manuel
Department of Civil, Architectural, and
Environment Engineering,
University of Texas,
Austin, TX 78712
Instrumented Risers
In order to assess the effects of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and to ensure riser integ-
rity, field monitoring campaigns are often conducted wherein the riser response is
recorded by a few data sensors distributed along the length of the riser. In this study, two
empirical techniquesproper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and weighted waveform
analysis (WWA)are sequentially applied to the data; together, they offer a novel empiri-
cal procedure for fatigue damage estimation in an instrumented riser. The procedures
are briefly described as follows: first, POD is used to extract the most energetic spatial
modes of the riser response from the measurements, which are defined only at the avail-
able sensor locations. Accordingly, a second step uses WWA to express each dominant
POD mode as a series of riser natural modes that are continuous spatial functions
defined over the entire riser length. Based on the above empirically identified modal
information, the riser response over the entire length is reconstructed in reversei.e.,
compose identified natural modes into the POD modes and, then, assemble all these dom-
inant POD modal response components into the derived riser response. The POD proce-
dure empirically extracts the energetic dynamic response characteristics without any
assumptions and effectively cleans the data of noisy or less important features; this fun-
damental application of WWA is used to identify dominant riser natural modesall this is
possible using the limited number of available measurements from sensor locations.
Application of the procedure is demonstrated using experimental data from the Norwe-
gian Deepwater Programme (NDP) model riser. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4035303]

Introduction challenge to estimate fatigue damage using the real-time measure-

ments. Compared with analytical approaches, fatigue damage esti-
With exploration of hydrocarbon resources moving into deeper
mated empirically using response measurements has some
waters, offshore structures are encountering harsher environmen-
advantages: (a) the inputs (measurements) are explicitly taken
tal conditions. Flow-induced vibrationsincluding VIV as well
into account of any complex characteristics of the risers dynamic
as WIVare often observed in deepwater risers due to their
response and (b) fewer or no assumptions and simplifications are
slenderness and light damping. VIV is a complex fluid-structure
needed on the riser model and on the current velocity profiles.
coupling phenomenon; its mechanism is not yet fully understood.
Thus, the development of empirical fatigue damage estimate
Sustained large-amplitude VIV is a major contributor to accumu-
methods for risers has become an important area for research in
lated fatigue damage in risers and, thus, this problem has attracted
the offshore oil and gas industry.
much practical interest in the offshore industry. In the design
Several modal identification techniques, such as POD [2],
phase for a riser, VIV and associated fatigue damage are often
weighted waveform analysis (WWA) [3,4], modal phase recon-
analyzed using finite element analysis (FEA) software, in which a
struction (MPR) [5], and efficient modal decomposition and
discretized finite element model of the riser is constructed based
reconstruction (EMDR) [6], have been employed by researchers
on various simplifications/assumptions on the risers physical and
to study a risers simulated or measured VIV response. In a previ-
hydrodynamic properties. Environmental conditions, such as inci-
ous study by Shi et al. [7], empirical procedures, each employing
dent current velocity profiles, are also simplified. Fatigue damage
a different modal analysis technique, were developed for the pur-
is then predicted based on the risers dynamic response simulated
pose of riser VIV-related fatigue damage estimation. The study
using such a simplified model.
demonstrated that the empirical procedures developed, though
In order to investigate VIV as well as to ensure the integrity of
they possessed distinct intrinsic relative advantages and disadvan-
the riser system, monitoring campaigns are often undertaken [1]
tages, could all be used to estimate fatigue damage over an entire
wherein the riser response (including bending strains and/or accel-
riser span by using measurements at a limited number of loca-
erations) is recorded by a number of sensors spatially distributed
tions. Among the empirical procedures studied, POD has special
along the riser axis. Generally, current velocity profiles are also
advantages, because (a) POD directly extracts energetic spatial
often recorded at a nearby location. Riser monitoring campaigns
modes from second-order statistics of the measurements and the
can thus generate a large number of data sets. Each data set con-
procedure is straightforward and the computation can be very fast
sists of a series of riser response time series measured at several
and (b) a small number of POD modes (termed dominant
discrete locations along with an associated current speed profile.
modes) usually account for a large portion of the total energy, and
Riser monitoring campaigns provide an opportunity as well as a
thus, discarding the remaining trivial modes (modes that account
for a relatively small portion of the total energy may be thought to
1
Corresponding author. be associated with noise) has a practical benefit, which is to
Contributed by the Ocean, Offshore, and Arctic Engineering Division of ASME
for publication in the JOURNAL OF OFFSHORE MECHANICS AND ARCTIC ENGINEERING.
clean the data. However, one of the disadvantages of the POD
Manuscript received July 1, 2016; final manuscript received November 10, 2016; procedure is that the empirically extracted modes are only defined
published online February 17, 2017. Assoc. Editor: Marcelo R. Martins. at the locations of the input sensors. In an earlier study [7], it was

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 shown that if a risers response is desired at a location where no
sensors are available, interpolation or extrapolation is needed. The
accuracy of such response estimation decreases with the distance
of the desired location from nearby sensors, which limits the
applicability of this POD procedure.
In the present study, a new approach aimed at improving the
empirical POD procedure is developed. The procedure is briefly
described as follows. First, POD is used to decompose the original
data (measured time series of the riser response) into a series of
energetic vibration patterns, i.e., the POD modes. Second, by
application of the WWA technique, each dominant POD mode
shape is further decomposed into several riser natural mode
shapes, which are spatially continuous over the riser span. Third,
the identified natural mode shape coordinates are used to approxi-
mate the dominant POD mode shape. Finally, the risers response
over its entire span is obtained by summing the effects of all the
dominant POD modes. The rationale for combining POD and
WWA is that: (a) spatially continuous functions are desirable
since the empirical POD mode shapes are only defined at sparsely
distributed discrete sensor locations and (b) the dominant POD
modes are often narrow-banded, which makes it possible to apply
WWA even when only a few sensors are available. Note that the
less important POD modes may exhibit broad-banded characteris-
tics that which may not be accurately captured by WWA; how-
ever, errors introduced by ignoring these modes are small because
only a small fraction of energy is carried by those modes. The
effectiveness of the empirical fatigue damage estimation proce-
dure is demonstrated by applying it to the NDP riser VIV experi-
mental data sets [8]. Shortcomings of the proposed procedure are
also discussed.
Model Riser and Data Sets
The NDP model riser experiments were carried out by the Nor-
wegian Marine Technology Research Institute (Marintek) in 2003,
by horizontally towing a flexible cylinder which, in combination
with the actual flow conditions, can adequately describe a vertical
straight riser in the ocean basin test facility. The cylinder is 38 m
long with a length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio of 1400. The model
riser was tested for uniform as well as linearly-sheared current
profiles. Riser response was measured using 24 strain sensors (one
sensor failed for some test runs; hence, in some cases, only 23
strain sensors were available) and eight accelerometers for the
cross-flow (CF) direction. Similarly, in the in-line (IL) direction,
measurements from 40 strain sensors and eight accelerometers
were available. Key parameters of the model riser are provided in
Table 1. Additional details on the NDP experiments that relate to
the test setup and other physical properties of the model riser may
be found in the work of Braaten and Lie [8] and Trim et al. [3].
Among the six data sets available at the VIV data repository
[9], four of them were obtained from tests on bare risers. Table 2
summarizes current speed characteristics and root-mean-square
(RMS) values of CF displacement normalized with respect to the
diameter, D, of the cylinder. Because of the large RMS displace-
ment values that were computed from data in these four tests, this
response is thought to be associated with VIV and, as such, these
Table 1 Physical and hydrodynamic properties of the NDP
model riser
Length (m) 38
Outer diameter (mm) 27
Wall thickness (mm) 3
Mass of riser per unit length (kg/m) 0.933
Mass of displaced water per unit length (kg/m) 0.576
Mean effective tension (N) 40006000
Bending stiffness (Nm2) 598.8
Maximum Reynolds number 70,000
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Table 2 The four bare riser NDP data sets
Event Current Max. current Largest RMS
no. profile speed (m/s) CF-disp/D
2120 Uniform 1.4 0.44
2150 Uniform 1.7 0.40
2350 Linearly sheared 0.7 0.42
2420 Linearly sheared 1.4 0.37
four tests are well suited for this study. Note that, in Table 2, the
RMS CF displacement reported is based on the entire length of
record and the largest value from all the eight accelerometer log-
gers was considered. Additional characteristics of the riser
response as observed in the four data sets may be found in the
work of Shi et al. [4].
For a straight rier, such as a top-tensioned riser, VIV
response in the CF direction is usually larger than that in the
IL direction; hence, the empirical method presented is
employed to reconstruct the CF response. The accuracy of the
response reconstruction is examined using a leave-one-out
cross-validation procedure. Given strains measured at 24 sensor
locations, first, one sensor (among the original 24) is selected
as the target sensor; its measurement is hidden and not
employed in the response reconstruction. The remaining 23
measurements are used as inputs to the empirical method to
reconstruct the risers response over its entire span (including
at the location of the target sensor). The reconstructed response
at the target sensor location is then compared with the direct
measurement at the same location (which was never used for
the reconstruction). As part of the procedure, each of the avail-
able sensors is selected in turn as the target sensor in the
cross-validation exercise. A parameter, termed damage ratio
(DR), defined as the ratio of the fatigue damage computed
using the reconstructed response to the fatigue damage com-
puted using the true measurement at the same location, is then
derived as follows:
ne Sbe
DR (1)
nm Sbm
where ne and Se represent, respectively, the number of cycles
and the equivalent stress range of the reconstructed stress time
series, while nm and Sm are the corresponding quantities of the
measured stress time series at the same location. Also, b is the
Wohler exponent of the fatigue S-N curve. In this study,
fatigue damage is computed using the rainflow cycle-counting
algorithm and Miners rule with an assumed value of b 3.
Note that if DR < 1, the empirical reconstruction procedure
underestimates the risers response in terms of the fatigue
damage, while DR > 1 means the empirical method overesti-
mates it. Note too that compared with the use of, say, the riser
RMS response, the parameter, DR, is a more robust indicator
to assess the quality of the response reconstruction because it
conveys information both on the amplitude (stress range) and
on the frequency (number of cycles). Furthermore, DR is a
more properly discriminating indicator of damage because
errors in the stress range are magnified by a power of b. For
example, if the stress range is overestimated by a factor of 2,
with a S-N curve where b 3, what would result is that
DR 8, which means that the estimated fatigue damage com-
puted using the reconstructed response is eight times the true
value.
In the following, a sheared current data set, NDP 2350, with
strain sensor no. 4 (at a location where z/L 0.11; L is the risers
length) selected as the target sensor, is employed to illustrate the
details of the proposed empirical method. Locations of the 23
input sensors (circle symbols) and the assumed target sensor
(asterisk symbol) are indicated in Fig. 1.
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 1 Locations of the 23 input sensors and one target sensor
(sensor no. 4) used to illustrate the empirical procedure. Note
pinned-pinned boundary conditions are in effect at x/L 5 0 and
x/L 5 1.
Results obtained from using all the four available NDP data
sets with other sensors selected as the target are also presented in
the Empirical Fatigue Damage Estimation Results section.
Proper Orthogonal Decomposition
Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is a technique widely
used in many scientific disciplines, such as oceanography, meteor-
ology, statistics, etc., often, with different names such as empirical
orthogonal function (EOF) analysis, principal component analysis
(PCA), and singular value decomposition (SVD). The method is
useful for extracting energetic spatial modes or patterns of vari-
ation of any physical phenomenon that is fully described by a
high-dimensional spatio-temporal stochastic field (such as the
suite of riser strain time series from multiple sensors that we have
here). Examples of the application of POD for the analysis of riser
VIV response may be found in the literature (see, for example,
Kleiven [2], Srivilairit et al. [10], and Srivilairit and Manuel [11]).
Given a suite of strain time series measured at M locations,
Vt fv1 t; v2 t; ; vM tgT , one can establish an M  M modes, which represent 99% of the total energy, are retained for
covariance matrix, Cv, from the strain time series, V(t). By solv-
ing an eigenvalue problem, one can diagonalize Cv so as to obtain
the matrix, K, as follows:
UT Cv U K; Cv U UK (2)
Solution of the eigenvalue problem yields eigenvalues,
fk1 ; k2 ; ; kM g diagfKg (where k1 > k2 > > kM ) and asso-
ciated eigenvectors, U f/1 ; /2 ; ; /M g.
It is possible to rewrite the original M correlated time series,
V(t), in terms of uncorrelated scalar subprocesses,
Ut fu1 t; u2 t; ; uM tgT , such that
X
M this issue, in the present study, spatially continuous mode
Vt UUt /j uj t (3) shapes are estimated by employing WWA to each of the dis-
j1
where /j represents the jth POD mode shape associated with the
jth scalar subprocess, uj(t). The energy associated with uj(t) is
described in terms of the corresponding eigenvalue, kj. A
^
reduced-order representation of the strain time series, Vt, may
be obtained by including only the first N POD modes and associ-
ated generalized subprocesses
X
N more efficient when applied to narrow-banded single-frequency
^
Vt /j uj t; N<M (4) processes versus broad-banded multifrequency processes; these
j1
For the data set, NDP 2350, strains were measured at 24 loca-
tions. With sensor no. 4 selected as the target, the remaining 23
strain time series are used as inputs, and thus, M 23. Normalized
power spectral density (PSD) functions of the 23 input strain time
series are presented in Fig. 2. Instead of comparing the energy car-
ried by each sensor, the purpose here is to assess the frequency
content of each strain time series; hence, each PSD function is
normalized so that the maximum value equals unity. Figure 2
shows that, for all input (measured) strains, a large fraction of
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Fig. 2 Normalized PSD functions of the 23 input (measured)
strain time series
energy is concentrated around 3.5 Hz, which is the vortex shed-
ding frequency; a relatively small fraction of energy is also evi-
dent at frequencies around 10 Hz and 16 Hz, which are associated
with three times and five times the vortex shedding frequency,
respectively.
Following the procedure outlined above, 23 POD mode shapes,
/j , can be obtained; the original 23 strain time series can be
decomposed into 23 uncorrelated POD scalar subprocesses, uj(t).
If ranked by energy (eigenvalue), the first three POD modes are
seen to account for 45.6%, 33.2%, and 12.2% of the total energy,
respectively, while the remaining 20 POD modes account for less
than 10% of the total energy. In the following, the first 13 POD
response reconstruction, i.e., N 13 in Eq. (4); the remaining ten
modes (accounting for less than 1% of the energy) are assumed as
noise and can be discarded. It needs to be emphasized that POD is
very efficient in extracting energetic vibration modes and the
method effectively cleans the data; however, the mode shapes are
only defined at the locations of the input sensors. By using Eq.
(4) to reconstruct the riser response at locations where no sen-
sor is available, mode shape coordinates at those locations
need to be estimated. In a previous study by Shi et al. [7],
third-order polynomials were used to interpolate between the
discrete POD mode shape coordinates empirically available
only at sensor locations; this makes the response reconstruction
method based on POD appear to be an ad hoc one. To address
crete POD mode shapes; this improves the objectivity of the
empirical method.
Power spectra are estimated for the first 13 POD subpro-
cesses, uj(t), j 1 to 13, and normalized to reveal the fre-
quency content of each subprocess by setting the maximum
PSD ordinate to unity. As illustrated in Fig. 3, the first three
POD subprocesses resemble narrow-banded single-peak random
processes, with peaks around 3.5 Hz, 3.5 Hz, and 10 Hz, respec-
tively. Given a specific number of input sensors, WWA is
hints at the possibility of using WWA to efficiently further
decompose POD modes and reconstruct response time series
using continuous modes aided by both POD and WWA in tan-
dem. The decomposition and reconstruction using WWA may
be expected to have high accuracy when applied to dominant
single-frequency POD modes (recall, in our illustration, that
the first three modes account for over 90% of the total
energy). The accuracy will be lower for the other multifre-
quency modes; however, errors introduced by these lower
modes to the total field reconstruction will be small because of
the relatively smaller fraction of energy associated with them.
JUNE 2017, Vol. 139 / 031701-3
 2 3 2 3 2 3
u001
1 u001
2  u001
N w1 e1 =R
6 7 6 7 6 7
6 002 7 6 7 6 7
6 u1
6 u002
2  u002
N 7
7 6 w2 7
6 7
6 e2 =R 7
6 7
A6 7; w6 7; d6 7
6 7 6 7 6 7
6 7 6 7 6 7
4 5 4 5 4 5
u00M
1 u00M
2
00M
   uN wN eM =R
(8)

where u00j i is the curvature of the nith mode shape at logger loca-
tion, zj, and ej e(zj, t) is the strain measured at location, zj. Equa-
tion (7) represents a linear system of M equations with N weights
to be estimated. At any instant of time, t, as long as N  M, the
modal weights vector, w, may be solved for in a least-squares
Fig. 3 Normalized PSD functions for the first 13 POD sense. Thus, we have
subprocesses
wt AT A1 AT dt (9)

The risers response, such as its CF bending strain, at any location,

Weighted Waveform Analysis
Weighted waveform analysis (WWA) is a useful tool to repre-
sent the participation of different modes of vibration of a riser
toward its overall response [3,12]. In previous studies by Shi et al.
[4,13], WWA was employed to decompose direct response meas-
urements, and then, to reconstruct the response over the entire
riser span. In general, a risers VIV response is a multifrequency
process, which needs a sufficient number of sensors to be used
with WWA in order to represent all the important participating
modes; the accuracy of response reconstruction is low when there
is a small number of available sensors. It is shown above that
dominant POD modes often resemble narrow-banded single-
frequency processes. Hence, in this study, instead of applying
WWA to the measurements directly, it is used to extract the par-
ticipating vibratory POD modes first derived empirically from the
data.
For the sake of completeness, the mathematical derivation of
the WWA procedure is briefly presented here.
Assume that the riser CF displacement, x, at location, z, and
time, t, may be expressed as a weighted sum of N assumed modes.
Thus, we have
X
N the nith natural mode shape can be expressed as
xz; t wi tui z (5)
i1
where it is assumed that by using N (not necessarily sequentially
consecutive) modes, one can approximately represent the riser
displacement time series at any location, z. Also, ui z represents
the nith mode shape, while wi(t) represents the time-varying modal
weight to be applied to the nith mode shape associated with index
i in Eq. (5).
The bending strain, e(z, t), which is the product of the riser
radius, R, and the local curvature, x00 , may be expressed as
follows:
X
N cosine term is the corresponding imaginary part and is termed the
ez; t Rx00 z; t Rwi tu00i z (6) Hilbert shape, because it describes the sine term out of phase by
i1
where the symbol 00 denotes the second spatial derivative; so,
u00i z represents the curvature of the nith mode shape.
Given strain measurements or, equivalently, curvature measure-
ments at M logger locations, zj (where j 1 to M), WWA requires
solution of a system of equations in matrix form
Aw d (7)
where the matrix, A, comprises curvatures of the assumed mode
shapes at all the logger locations and the vector, d, is formed from
the measured strains at all loggers. In expanded form, we have
z, can be reconstructed using Eq. (6), once the modal weights
have been estimated.
The WWA method, as presented earlier, appears to be fairly
simple and straightforward. However, a successful application of
WWA has two requirements: (a) definition of the mode shapes;
and (b) selection of an optimal mode set. These are discussed in
the Mode Shape Definition section.
Mode Shape Definition. For vertical or catenary risers, the dif-
ferential equation governing free vibration may be solved using
analytical methods with eigenmodes expressed in terms of Bessel-
like functions (see Pesce et al. [14], and Mazzilli et al. [15]). The
selected NDP model riser has a constant tension and uniformly
distributed physical properties along its length. The nith natural
mode shape representing displacement in a standing wave can be
approximated by a sinusoidal function, i.e.
 
ni pz
ui z sin (10)
L
where L is the length of the riser. Accordingly, the curvature of
 2  
ni p ni pz
u00i z  sin (11)
L L
The possible distortion to classical standing waves arising from
traveling waves, often observed in riser VIV, results in more com-
plex modes than are indicated by Eq. (10). In order to capture pos-
sible traveling wave behavior, a cosine term may be introduced as
a complement to the sine term for each natural mode in Eq. (10)
[7]. In the context of modal analysis, the sine term is the real part
of a complex mode and is referred to as the normal shape. The
90 deg. Note that the cosine terms do not satisfy the NDP model
riser pinned-pinned boundary conditions where the transverse
response is zero. To correctly address this, the Hilbert shapes are
adjusted spatially, using a window that decays to zero at the boun-
daries [6]. Figure 4 shows an example of normal and Hilbert shape
components for the fifth natural mode of the NDP model riser that
allows for possible traveling wave effects.
Generally, for a marine riser, the normal mode shapes can be
estimated using the finite element method. Hilbert shapes can be
obtained by applying a Hilbert transform and a decaying spatial
window adjustment to the normal shapes at the extremities. With
the complementary Hilbert shapes added to the normal shapes, the
following mode shape matrix, A, results:

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Fig. 4 Normal and Hilbert shape components of the fifth natu-
ral mode of the NDP model riser (with pinned-pinned boundary
conditions)
2 3
u001
1 w001
1 u001
2 w001
2  u001
N w001
N (c) if the ratio of the third spectral peak to the first peak is
6 7
6 u002 w002 u002 w002  u002 w002 7
6 1 1 2 2 N N 7
A6 7 (12)
6 7
4 5
u00M w00M u00M w00M  u00M w00M
1 1 2 2 N N
where u00j 00j
i and wi are curvatures of the normal mode and the Hil-
bert mode, respectively, of the nith mode shape curvature at log-
ger location, zj.
Mode Set Selection. Another issue that needs to be addressed
has to do with selection of the set of modes to include in the
WWA approach. As already stated, the number of available sen-
sors, M, limits the number of modes, N, that may be included in
the WWA scheme, i.e., N  M; this indicates that the availability
of a larger number of sensors allows a greater number of modes to
be included, which will generally lead to a more accurate recon-
struction of the riser response. For the cross-validation exercise
using the NDP data sets, 23 input sensors are available which
allows a fairly large number of modes to be included. However, in
this study, only three modes, each consisting of a normal shape
and a Hilbert shape, are used in the WWA scheme. The reasons
for selecting only three modes, instead of a larger number, are
that: (a) often, the risers dominant response contribution is at the
vortex shedding frequency as well as at three and five times that
frequency (as seen in Fig. 2); this requires at least three modes to
capture those frequency components and (b) the use of a smaller
number of modes with the WWA scheme highlights its applica-
tion to more common situations where only a small number of
sensors is available. A procedure for selecting the three modes for
WWA to reconstruct each POD mode is discussed next.
Step 1: Calculate the risers natural frequencies using the ten-
sioned beam equation. For a riser with complex geometry and
physical properties, the natural frequencies may be estimated
using the finite element method;
Step 2: For each POD mode, a spectral analysis is performed on
the associated POD subprocess. The three most dominant spectral
peaks are identified and sorted based on the PSD ordinates; associ-
ated mode numbers are identified by matching the peak frequen-
cies with the nearest riser natural frequencies. By comparing the
relative heights of the three spectral peaks for each POD mode
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subprocess, that mode is classified as a single-frequency, double-
frequency, or triple-frequency process. The procedure for prepar-
ing the candidate mode sets is different for the three classes.
(a) If the ratio of the second spectral peak to the first peak is
less than a specified value, e.g., 0.1 (which means that the
height of the second peak is less than 10% of the first
peak), the POD subprocess is classified as a single-
frequency process. If the identified mode at the first peak is
the kth natural mode, three candidate mode sets, each con-
taining three consecutive modes, are prepared, which are
the set of the [(k  2)th, (k  1)th, kth], [(k  1)th, kth,
(k 1)th], [kth, (k 1)th, (k 2)th] modes. The reason for
considering several candidate mode sets with modes shifted
around the peak mode is to recognize that the peak mode
may not be accurately identified due to the approximate
estimation of the risers natural frequencies.
(b) If the ratio of the second spectral peak to the first peak is
greater than 0.1, while the ratio of the third to the first peak
is less than 0.1, the POD subprocess is classified as a
double-frequency process. If the modes associated with the
first and second spectral peaks are the kth and pth natural
modes, six candidate mode sets are prepared, which are the
set of the [(k  1)th, kth, (p  1)th], [(k  1)th, kth, pth],
[(k  1)th, kth, (p 1)th], [kth, (k 1)th, (p  1)th], [kth,
(k 1)th, pth], [kth, (k 1)th, (p 1)th] modes. Note that
two consecutive modes are used to capture the first peak
mode because it carries a larger portion of energy compared
with the second peak mode.
greater than 0.1, the POD subprocess is classified as a
triple-frequency process; then, all the three peaks need to
be included in the WWA scheme. If the first spectral peak
is identified as the kth natural mode, a mode set containing
three consecutive modes centered at the peak mode, i.e.,
the [(k  1)th, kth, (k 1)th] natural modes, is considered.
This set is assumed a mode pool for the first peak; simi-
larly, if the second and third peaks are identified as the pth
and rth natural modes, the associated mode pools are
[(p  1)th, pth, (p 1)th] and [(r  1)th, rth, (r 1)th],
respectively. The candidate mode set for this triple-
frequency process is obtained by drawing one mode from
each mode pool to represent each peak; considering all per-
mutations, 27 candidate mode sets are obtained for any
triple-frequency process.
Step 3: For each empirically derived POD mode, the mode set,
among all candidate mode sets, that results in the lowest recon-
struction error (i.e., the smallest error between the reconstructed
modal coordinates and the original POD modal coordinates at all
input sensor locations) is selected as the optimal mode set. This
optimal mode set is then used with the WWA scheme to decom-
pose and reconstruct the POD mode shape. It should be noted that
as distinct from applying WWA directly to the direct response
measurements, where a time-varied modal weight vector, w(t), is
obtained by least-squares fitting (see Eq. (9)) in each time-step, in
the present study, WWA is used to decompose and reconstruct
each spatial POD mode shape, /j , which is already separated
from the temporal subprocess, uj(t) by the POD procedure (see
Eq. (4)). In other words, the matrix operations, including least-
squares fitting, are performed only once for each POD mode
shape; this results in a modal weight vector, w, that is independent
of time.
Illustration: The first three dominant POD modes, which are
single-frequency processes, are used as examples and presented in
Fig. 5. Normalized PSDs of the scalar subprocesses associated
with the POD modes are plotted at the top; these clearly show
dominant narrow-banded single spectral peaks in each case. The
POD mode shapes are plotted below, where the blue circles repre-
sent the discrete mode shape coordinates at the sensor locations,
and the red solid lines indicate the continuous mode shape
JUNE 2017, Vol. 139 / 031701-5

Fig. 5 Normalized PSDs and mode shapes of the first three
dominant POD modes that account for 45.6%, 33.2%, and 12.2%
of the total energy, respectively
functions reconstructed using WWA. The percent of energy car-
ried by each POD mode is also indicated in the figure. Figure 5
shows that the reconstructed mode shape functions accurately
describe the POD mode shape coordinates for the first three POD
modes, which together account for over 90% of the total energy.
In a similar manner, the fourth and the seventh POD modes are
presented in Fig. 6. The fourth mode, which accounts for about
1.8% of the total energy, is a double-frequency process, while the
seventh mode, which accounts for about 0.9% of the total energy,
is a triple-frequency process. Note that the accuracy of mode
shape reconstruction for the multiple-frequency processes is not
as good as that for the single-frequency processes (seen in Fig. 5).
This is expected because it is generally more difficult to describe
a multifrequency process than it is to describe a single-frequency
process with the same number of modes. Nevertheless, errors
introduced in these multi-frequency modes toward the final recon-
struction are relatively small because only a small fraction of
energy is associated with these modes.
After a continuous mode shape function is reconstructed for
each of the important POD modes using WWA, the riser response
Fig. 6 Normalized PSDs and modal shapes of the fourth and
seventh POD modes that account for 1.8% and 0.9% of the total
energy, respectively
031701-6 / Vol. 139, JUNE 2017
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Fig. 7 Strain time series at a selected sensor location (z/
L 5 0.11): direct measurements versus reconstruction
over its entire span, including the target location (i.e., z/L 0.11
in this example), is estimated by combining all the important POD
modes using Eq. (4). In Fig. 7, strain time series over a 6 s time
window are plotted; results show that the reconstructed time series
(red dashed line) matches the direct measurements (blue solid
line) reasonably well. The estimated fatigue damage and the
true fatigue damage are computed using the reconstructed strain
time series and the direct measurements, respectively, at the
selected locations. The damage ratio, defined in Eq. (1) as the
ratio between the estimated fatigue damage and the true fatigue
damage, is 1.05, which means that the proposed empirical method
overestimates the fatigue damage rate by 5%.
Figure 8 presents RMS values of the CF strains over the entire
span of the riser. Blue circles represent RMS values at the input
sensor locations, the red line represents corresponding values
based on the reconstruction approach, and the blue and red aster-
isks are the measured and estimated values, respectively, at the
target sensor location. It is seen that the reconstruction approach
captures the risers global response quite accurately.
Empirical Fatigue Damage Estimation Results
In the preceding sections, a sheared current data set, NDP 2350,
with strain sensor no. 4 (located at z/L 0.11, where L is the riser
length) selected as the target sensor, was used to demonstrate the
empirical procedures proposed for fatigue damage estimation.
Results for all four NDP riser data sets with other sensors selected
Fig. 8 RMS values of CF strains over the entire riser span
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 Fig. 9 Fatigue damage ratio estimated using the proposed empirical method
(POD combined with WWA) with 23 strains as input. The range of damage ratios
estimated with each data set is indicated in the legend.

Fig. 10 Fatigue damage ratio estimated using the POD method (with interpolation
using third-order polynomials) with 23 strains as input (an earlier study by Shi
et al. [7]). The range of damage ratios estimated with each data set is indicated in
the legend.

as the target are compiled together in Fig. 9. Fatigue damage
ratios estimated at each of the 24 sensor locations for the two uni-
form current data sets (red color) and the two sheared current data
sets (blue color) are presented. The lowest and highest values of
the fatigue damage ratio estimated for each data set are also indi-
cated in the figure legend. Considering all the four data sets, the
fatigue damage ratio estimated using the proposed procedure with
23 input sensors ranges from 0.20 to 4.75, which means that the
fatigue damage is, at worst, underestimated or overestimated by a
factor of five.
For the sake of comparison, fatigue damage ratios estimated
using the original POD method, with discrete POD modes interpo-
lated using a third-order polynomial, are presented in Fig. 10
using data from a previous study by Shi et al. [7]. For the same
four data sets with the same 23 input sensors, the fatigue damage
ratio ranges from 0.17 to 12.90. The comparison suggests that the
accuracy in fatigue damage estimation is greatly improved by the
new empirical method outlined in the present study.
Conclusions
In this study, a new procedure is developed for the purpose of
riser fatigue damage estimation, in which two modal decomposi-
tion techniques, POD and WWA, are sequentially applied to
response measurements. Specifically, given a series of riser
response measurements, POD is first employed to decompose the
original data into a set of POD modes, each expressed as a product
of a spatial vibration pattern (mode shape) and a temporal func-
tion termed a scalar subprocess. Usually a small number of POD
modes accounts for a large portion of the total energy, while the
remaining modes, that account for only a small fraction of the
energy, may be assumed to less important and their contribution
may then be ignored. The purpose for using POD is, as such, to
clean the data and, more importantly, to extract energetic mode
contributions directly from the data. A problem that arises is that
empirically derived POD mode shapes are spatially discrete func-
tions that are defined only at the sensor locations. In order to esti-
mate the riser response as well as fatigue damage at locations
where no sensors are available, each POD mode shape is further
decomposed using a WWA scheme with continuous mode shape
functions. In the WWA scheme, a complementary pair of normal
and windowed Hilbert mode shape are used together to describe
both standing and traveling wave behavior. A procedure for
selecting an optimal mode set for the WWA scheme is presented.
The empirical procedures are demonstrated with an example study
involving a sheared current data set, NDP 2350, with 23 input
strains. Results from analysis with four available data sets show
that fatigue damage computed using the empirically reconstructed
riser response is quite accurate compared with the true value
based on direct measurements. The finding from this study suggest
that the proposed empirical method can be used effectively in
reconstructing a risers response, and then, to estimate the fatigue
damage over the entire span, using measurements at a limited
number of sensors.
Acknowledgment
Financial supports provided to the first author by the National
Key Research and Development Program Research on nondes-
tructive testing, intelligent monitoring, and experimental verifica-
tion of a multipurpose flexible pipe for ultra deepwater
applications (Grant No. 2016YFC0303803) and the Fundamental
Research Funds for Central University (Grant No. 16CX02024A)
are greatly appreciated. The authors acknowledge with gratitude
the permission granted by the Norwegian Deepwater Programme
Riser and Mooring Project to use the riser high mode VIV tests.
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